Deutsche Grammophon and Apple Music partner on 'essential' classical platform

The digital partnership includes The DG Playlist, which will highlight the best recordings from the label, alongside a selection of visual albums featuring performances by DG artists and special video performances from Daniil Trifonov and Ildar Abdrazakov. For the launch, Trifonov, Rolando Villazón and Peter Gregson have curated Apple Music’s three main composer radio stations: Mozart, Bach and Beethoven.

Deutsche Grammophon’s Apple Music destination will highlight major classical music events, iconic releases, featured composers and performers and significant anniversaries, alongside curated playlists and audio-visual content. Apple Music’s specialist classical team will work closely with DG’s in-house and guest curators.

In 2016, Deutsche Grammophon became the first classical label to establish a curator channel on Apple Music. The partnership led to two dozen successful playlists and resulted in the extended curatorial collaboration.

The DG destination launched today at the Salzburg Festival. DG artists Daniil Trifonov, Rolando Villazón, Ildar Abdrazakov and Peter Gregson performed and appeared on a panel discussion about classical music in the digital age.

“The curatorial power of the Yellow Label and our vibrant artist community has always been exceptional, in record stores and in the digital space,” said Dr Clemens Trautmann, president Deutsche Grammophon. “In a world where attention spans have become shorter and classical music content more ubiquitous, people must think wisely before spending their limited time and resources. Together with our partner Apple Music, we aim to enable discovery and provide orientation to everything that is essential in classical music. We also embrace the opportunity to present short-form and long-form video productions in a significant way, making the service a cornerstone of DG’s global audio-visual strategy.”

Jonathan Gruber, Apple Music, said: “Classical music is all about the joy of exploration, and we are thrilled to welcome the amazing artists of Deutsche Grammophon to join our worldwide team of trusted guides."

Trifonov’s performance at Mozart’s birthplace was recorded and will be added to his inaugural Video Essential Playlist.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to share my work on Apple Music, thanks to my label’s new space there allowing artists like myself to share their music with the classical community,” he said. “I feel privileged to be the first classical artist to present an audio-visual playlist of my performance videos; I have dear memories of conceiving and creating them over the past few years, and I’m excited for them to be available widely on Apple Music.”

Other audio-visual highlights include the first ever full opera to be offered by Apple Music in the form of a visual album – Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette from the 2008 Salzburg Festival – along with a Salzburg video playlist.

“Mozart has been one of my long-time passions and Salzburg has always been a central place in my life, both as a performer and as artistic director of Mozartwoche,” said Villazón. “I am thrilled, therefore, to be able to share some of my favourite Mozart pieces on Apple Music’s Mozart radio station. I’m fully aware of how important it is to provide context and orientation to listeners of classical music and am committed to making its richness accessible to everyone. I feel the new DG space on Apple Music is an excellent forum for discovery.”